The Scorching-legends of Pyrrhia
by nightfall100
Summary: After the moon is broken by a comet the planet is overwhelmed by water from the melting glaciers. The scavengers are swept away by the water and the dragons band together to survive. Two sets of young dragons set out to discover a new home. But can they survive the dangers of the new world?
1. Prologue

**Hello everyone! when I am writing this author's note, I have already posted chapter eight! I hope that any of my old readers coming here are still looking forward to my new chapters, and to any new readers, welcome. I hope that everyone enjoys themselves.**

 **It has come to my attention that many people have stopped reading after the prologue. That is totally okay, but the prologue is not the best of my chapters! I didn't even have the story planned out while writing the first three chapters, so I have been painstakingly fixing plot holes one at a time! I would ask for people to at least consider reading a few chapters since they are quite short! (Also, no more of the chapters are this sad in my opinion! this is not a tragedy for moons sake!)**

 **Well, n** **ever mind all that, I hope that you enjoy my story!**

* * *

Prologue

Pre-scorching

Delta

A great comet spun by overhead. It's silver-white glow illuminating the sky like a second moon. The ants set up viewing instrument, staring at its light. This comet hadn't appeared in the common era, and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness this great event.

The dragon laboring for breath in her cave knew none of this though. Her young dragonet stoked up the fire, not knowing what else to do. How did you stop a fever that ravaged the body with chills while the scales burned like embers? She looked down at her mother, her slim brown snout trembling with fear. She had stopped moving. There was no sound in the small cavern but the crackling of the fire as the dragonet walked over slowly. She touched her talon to the cold scales of her mother's side. instantly she pulled it away in shock and disgust. This wasn't Amber anymore, the beautiful and strong mother she had known, this was a broken and empty shell. There was nothing left inside.

Delta turned away quietly. The smell of death hung heavily in the air. She wiped away a solitary tear. She wouldn't cry, not yet. She had other things to do. She looked back over her shoulder, and shot out a burst of fire, cremating the body as the straw mat Amber had been on burst into flames. She sat down on the ledge as the blaze started behind her. Now her tears flowed freely, and she let them. The clear lake below her reflected the sky, full of a multitude of stars, rivaling the flames behind her with its glow. The heat behind her was stifling, reminding her of all she had lost. She spread her wings, thinking of her mother's warning never to fly on bright nights for fear that the humans would see her. Well, this was the brightest night she could remember, but as she took to the sky she was too tired to care. She landed in the center of the lake, and the water felt remarkable on her itching scales. Her entrance shattered the starscape reflected in the water. she broke the surface sputtering and gasping for breath. The young dragonet looked up at the true stars just in time to see the comet hit the moon.

Snowstorm

Snowstorm watched the comet through his viewing glass intently, making notes in a small journal a, what were they called? Human, who had left the telescope had tossed at him in its attempt to flee. Snowstorm was on a mountain again, staring at the sky, as he always was, but this was the most interesting thing he had seen in years. The comet looked like a second moon to him, though with his superior eyesight he could see that it was much smaller and less round. Also, using his viewing glass, he could tell that it wasn't just one comet. It was, in fact, more like two dozen small rocks orbiting the central meteor.

The ridged plain of the planet spread out below him, his mind was a thousand miles away, following the track of the meteor. Snow was torn off of the top of the mountain in wafts and billowing drafts of pearly white. Snowstorms talons dug into the soft surface below him, resolutely keeping his sharp eyes to the lens. As it was, he was the only dragon, or perhaps the only entity on the planet who truly saw what happened as the meteorite that would change the future of everyone who thought that they were safe hit the moon.

Snowstorm watched in astonishment as the moon broke into three pieces, and the comet soared towards him, its ring of smaller stones scattering around the atmosphere. the three moons slowly faded away as the dark mass of the comet streaked towards him, growing larger with each passing moment, blotting out the stars, and everything around him.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

1 month after the scorching

Raspberry sat at the top of a tree, staring out forlornly at the ocean lapping below her. Her beautiful rainforest was no more, all of the fresh soil and tall trees being washed away after the comet split the moon in three and messed up the tide. The waves swamped much of their planet in an ever-roiling tumult of waves. She sighed, looking over at her best, and only remaining, friend, Palm. Palm's sand pale scales glowed in the early morning sun, and he lifted his snout happily to the sun. He couldn't have looked any more pleased with himself. "Don't you miss the rainforest?" Raspberry asked him, flicking her lime green tail irritably.

Palm shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. But we still have this much of it." He flicked a talon at the treetops just poking out of the gently lapping waves. "And I am happy as long as it stays hot enough."

He shook out his wings, "also, there are no humans left, so we don't have to hide anymore. I think it's great here."

Raspberry looked back out, giving the ocean her most fierce stare.

"Ha!" Palm chortled, "you look like someone stole your papaya then stuffed it right back up your nose!" He very nearly fell out of his tree, he was laughing so hard, "it's not like you to be this grumpy. Come on, let's go exploring." He looked beseechingly at Raspberry.

"We've already explored every tree and leaf in this whole floating compost heap!" Raspberry felt heat rising up her long neck, but she didn't care. "Why don't you just go on your own!"

"Maybe I will." Palm spat back, curling his lip menacingly, "you should learn to be thankful for what you have here and now. if we didn't have this 'floating compost heap' we'd be dead like all of our friends."

"I see how it is. maybe I'm not thankful I didn't die. Or maybe I'll just fly off this moon forsaken island and never come back," Raspberry hissed, and Palm balked at her use of the phrase, 'moon forsaken', "then you can think about all you lost as you are slowly dragged beneath the sea." they glared at each other for a few more moments.

Suddenly Raspberry sat back, running a wing in front of her face. "What are we doing?" she asked, her voice quavering, "I think this island must finally be getting to me."

Palm nodded, looking uneasy. They had never argued like that before, and their fierce words had shocked both of them.

"Maybe we should just spend the day here," Palm muttered. "You're right, we have explored everything here."

Nightfall

Her wings ached, but she couldn't stop yet. The ocean spread below her, unbroken by land and stretching from horizon to horizon. She turned her weary eyes to the north and was surprised to see... something. 'Something' was the most she had seen all day since she had left her island. as she swooped closer, she saw that it was a floating mat of treetops. She sighed. She had seen lots of this, these mats of wreckage from a forest or merely a single tree. there was nothing for her to do here. As she began to turn, something caught her eye. A flash of gold on a tree stood out against the green. Another dragon!

Nightfall hadn't seen any dragons since she had left the Island. She had almost given up hope of finding any other dragons on this blue continent, but there was one sitting right below her.

She tucked in her wings and dropped into a dive. She landed heavily, rocking the tree that the golden dragon was sitting on. Now that she could see him clearer, she noticed that there was actually a slender lime-green dragon crouching beside him, looking flustered.

"Who are you?" the golden dragon asked her, sparking with hostility, "where did you come from? We thought that we were the only ones left."

Nightfall panted, out of breath from her day of flying.

"Hey, are you okay?" she felt gentle wings encircling her, and she saw the green dragon supporting her.

"The, island. Have to… take you there." she gasped in air, her muscles finally realizing they were allowed to protest against their recent treatment.

"It's the last… dry land… gathering…"

"Whoah, slow down." she golden dragon said nervously. "What island? What gathering?"

"Palm!" the green dragon elbowed him, "let her catch her breath before you start pestering her."

Nightfall's vision was starting to fade and blacken around the edges. I shouldn't have pushed so hard. But what if I hadn't found these dragons here? then where woul be?


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Palm

Palm looked down at the sleeping dragon, whose scales were black as night. He had never seen a dragon so dark, and he found himself wanting to cover her with leaves so she wouldn't stand out. He liked how Raspberry was so unassuming against the tree tops, though her boring color just hid a fiery personality underneath.

He chuckled. If Raspberry's scales followed her emotions, she would be so eye-meltingly colorful that he wouldn't be able to be near her without closing his eyes! Now that would be something to see. _Or not see._

Raspberry crouched over the black dragon, looking like a sapling with her slim form next to the other dragon's sturdy build. Raspberry was wrapping up the small wounds and sprains on the dragon, and he chided himself for not helping her. _Do you always want to be the useless friend? Or will you try to be helpful now?_

 _I want to be useful_. He decided, hopping onto the tree Raspberry sat upon. "Need help?"

Her eyes flicked towards him, then quickly back to her patient. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm done."

He pretended to be surprised. "Really?" he said, trying to be convincing, "I think her tail is broken, and you haven't done anything to it yet."

"Is it really?" Raspberry said, starting to look towards the tail before catching him grinning at her.

"Hey!" she said accusingly, pointing a talon at him. "You're having me on, aren't you!"

She was just about to pounce on him, probably try to pin his wings with her inferior strength when the black dragon said "my tail is perfectly fine, thank you very much. You shouldn't make your friend worry like that."

Palm let out a surprised squeak, which was very uncharacteristic of him, and nearly fell off of the floating tree and into the water.

"How long have you been awake?" he gasped when he regained his balance.

"Are you okay?" Raspberry asked at the same time.

 _There I go again!_ He thought miserable, shaking his wings. _Raspberry is being a good dragon, asking her if she's okay and I sit here without the least regard to her feelings!_

"Don't worry," she said, addressing them both at once, "I haven't been awake long and i feel fine now, thank you." she stood up, but even Palm could see how she was favoring her left side.

She turned to him quickly, tail and wings swishing with her momentum. "So, before my, little incident." she winced as she said it, as if passing out from exhaustion was the most embarrassing moment of her life, "you were asking what i was saying."

Raspberry sidled over to Palm, looking wary as she pressed herself against his side. Their tails looped together. They stood together as the strange dragon before them recounted how all of the dragons left on the planet would be meeting on an island.

"Wait," Palm said skeptically, "there are still other dragons? Other than us, I mean?"

"Yes," the black dragon shrugged her wings, "but none my age."

"How old are you?" Raspberry squeaked from behind him.

"About five?" she said scrunching up her face.

"Wow, you're really big!" Palm exclaimed, then seeing her hurt expression, hurriedly added, "I mean, Raspberry and I are seven, and you are way bigger than us." It didn't help. He wings drooped more than they already were.

The entire sentence earned him two death stares from the female dragons.

"You're also far more mature. You flew all the way here from your island, while Palm and I have been messing around here for most of our lives." Raspberry amended.

Now _that_ perked up the black dragon. "You really think so?" she said hopefully.

"Of course," Raspberry reassured her, "what's your name anyway?"

"Nightfall."

Raspberry almost fell out of the tree top.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Snowstorm

Snowstorm paced around the small island, his long claws scraping along the hard black rock. His scales were dark and soot-stained, but he supposed it was better than being dead. This moons forsaken island had taken its toll on everyone who lived there. Everyone being a couple dozen other dragons.

Snowstorm missed the mountains that he had spent most of his life prowlings, but he had to admit that being warm was a welcome break.

A break, he thought, as if I will ever be anywhere else. I will spend the rest of my decidedly short life on this island and then be tossed into the sea when I die.

He flopped down with a growl.

"What's the matter with you?" another dragon asked as she flopped right next to him. "Someone stick a tree up your snout?"

"No. there aren't any trees big enough to go up my snout. What do you want?"

"Whoah, slow down there frost breath," she said, playfully thumping him with her tail, "I just wanted to know what was wrong. You did just flop yourself down on this very sharp rock. Did I mention that I lay down on it too just to talk to you?" her voice was playful, but Snowstorm just felt like stuffing a tree up her snout.

"I suppose the rocks are pretty hard," he lamented reluctantly, "but it's not like there is anywhere less sharp and extremely uncomfortable."

"Ah, you have got a point there." the other dragon exclaimed, rolling onto her back and batting her talons in the air like a giant cat.

"Anyhow," she said, turning herself to face him, "is there anything you need to talk about." she tried to arrange her face into sympathy, but only succeeded in something resembling a mushroom.

Snowstorm couldn't help but laugh as she screwed her face up even more, and then broke into a grin at his laugh.

"Hey frost breath, let's go find a possibly less sharp cliff to flop down on."

"Why do you call me that?" Snowstorm asked as they paced slowly along the island, searching for a flat area.

"Well, I hear you used to spend all of your time on a freezing mountain in the middle of nowhere. Also, you act like an icicle whenever someone gets too close to you."

"I do not!" he said indignantly, "icicles are much sharper."

"Whatever you say frost breath."

Snowstorm growled softly, but playfully, and she growled right back at him.

Delta

Delta was on an island. The Island, as all the other dragons were referring to it. She didn't believe that it was the only piece of land left, but she couldn't risk going out to look for other places.

A tiny dragonet rolled into her talon, and she jumped aside, growling at it.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" she exclaimed.

The tiny dragon looked up at her in wonder, probably thinking 'a big dragon's here!'

"Sowy, I was just playing. Wotcha doin here?"

"Grrr," Delta growled softly, "I got stuck here after a little fiasco with… well, I don't think it matters."

"The dragonet was watching her with wide eyes. His eyes were the only wide thing about him. He was dreadfully thin, as was everyone else on the island, but he seemed especially so. Did no one feed him?

Delta glanced at the cave that was the dragonet area. "Where are the other dragonets?" Delta asked.

"They left," the dragonet said, shaking his head. "They was cold, so they's moved somewhere else. No one told me nothing 'bout them for a while. I hope they're okay." he scratched his little head.

"When was the last time you had something to eat?" Delta asked, suspicious.

"Umm, maybe like, couple days ago? I dunno. Been a while." as if to prove his point, his stomach growled audibly.

"Someone is going to find my claws up their snout," she growled, starting for the entrance.

"No, please don't go!" the dragonet wailed. "I been so lonely, now you is here and you can't leave!"

Delta sighed, "fine, if you must, you can ride on my back. But if you dig your claws in, or screech or squirm, you might find yourself in the tallest tree I can find."

The dragonet mounted her and snuggled down into her warm scales. He really was cold, just like how he described the other dragonets.

Delta spread her wings, and soared up into the sky, letting the sun splash over her brown scales as it peeked through the thick clouds, turning her to gold. The dragonet on her back lifted his thin snout to the sky, his dark wings trembling as he gazed into the heavens.

Delta found what she was looking for, and dove down into the small gathering of dragons. many of them yelped and jumped aside, but Delta ignored them and stalked towards a tall blue dragon talking to someone she had never seen before.

"squid-brain!" she shouted at him.

"Delta, for the last time, my name isn't squid-brain. Sir should suffice," he said without turning to her.

"Yeah, well I don't care what you're called sir," she said sarcastically, "I Just want to know when you were planning on feeding the dragonets."

He finally turned to her, massaging his forehead. "Delta, what have I told you? the resources on this island are already spread thinly as it is. If I could feed everyone, every day, I would. As of this moment, I can hardly find enough to feed a single dragon per day." He started to turn back to the other dragon, who was watching with a nervous expression on her face.

"I don't think you understand. He hasn't been fed, not at all. He says he can't even remember the last time he ate."

"He?" 'squid-brain' raised an eyebrow, "where are the other dragonets then?"

"Not in the hatchery, that's for sure. Now, where could they be?" she said accusingly, tilting her head to the side, "in another cave? Up a tree maybe? No, I know this tiny island top to bottom, and I haven't seen any other dragonets."

"While that may be," he said, sneering a smile, "there is no need to worry. We do take good care of our dragonets. And with the others, temporarily missing, we could use some more."

You little… Delta thought as she opened her mouth to either breath fire on him or on everyone else.

"Sir!" a dragonet, probably just under Delta's own age skidded to a halt just short of her talons.

"Nebula, what is it?" 'squid-brain' asked as she stood panting.

"The other side of the island." she gulped, "just collapsed into the ocean!"


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Delta

All around her, dragons screamed and ran in confused circles. Delta thought that it was more likely that someone would die from being hit by a flailing wing and fall into the ocean than have the ground drop out beneath them. A thick blue tail hit her in the face, and she bit down, hard, prompting a yelp from the other dragon. Delta dropped the offending limb and called out, "everyone! Shut your stupid snouts and think for a second," the noise quieted a bit, but there were still enough dragons screaming to make her almost inaudible.

"If you all keep running around like a bunch of scared chickens, you will just pulverize the stone beneath your damned feet and cause your own death. So SIT STILL and LISTEN!"

Finally the dragons had stopped running, and most were looking at where she stood on top of a boulder. 'Squid brain' leaned forwards behind her, "don't say anything stupid, and three moons, be sensible."

Delta turned away from him to face the crowd. "Ok. so we have to be sensible." she scoffed at the word. None of these dragons knew what that meant.

"What should we do?" a thin voice wailed from the crowd.

Delta glared in the direction of the sound, "first, who was there."

A few dragons raised their talons, "any casualties?" she asked, and the dragons behind her bristled at her brusqueness.

"No miss," one dragon stepped forwards, running a small rock through his hands, "everyone is alright save for a few bumps and bruises. Though the area that collapsed was one of the housing sections, so now we have at least four dragons without somewhere to stay." he finished as a thin, high wailing started behind him. It spread into a cry that engulfed and squeezed Delta's heart. Her mother had sounded like that after Delta's father had left.

As other dragons stepped forwards to give her reports, she heard the sound eventually be muffled, as though by a tail being swiftly brought over the maker's snout. She heard tales of a great beast waiting in the ocean to pounce on them all, of the vengeful ghosts of humans come back to haunt them, or even of a great magic wielding deity, hoping to cleanse the world of their sin.

Delta listened to all of these remarks halfheartedly, wondering how their great race had fallen to this bunch of blithering fools spilling superstitions to a six-year-old dragonet.

At last, the old dragon - who had been breathing down her neck for the entire time - stepped forwards, raising a talon to command silence from the listening crowd. They stilled at once, staring up at him with hope shining on their stupid, irrational faces.

"Listen here, listen here," he began, flicking his tail to signal that Delta should step back. She growled quietly, but he ignored her and continued on, "I would like to know what everyone here thinks we should do. Will you all talk among yourselves for a few minutes, then send up representatives with your ideas."

Delta watched as the dragons separated themselves into four groups, and then sent up their 'representatives'. Each stepped up to the rock on which she stood and presented his or her case.

"Well," began a nervous looking green dragon, "my comrades and I believe that we should just move all areas of importance to the center of the island, away from the cliffs."

She was met by shouts of protest,

"I can't just move!"

"We don't have the strength!"

"We just settled down!"

She ducked her head, and walked off of the rock with her tail dragging through the moldering leaves.

The second dragon suggested they all leave the island and look for new land. Once again there were protests, and he stepped down looking murderously into the crowd. He was followed by a "how 'bout we just do nothing?" from a heavyset brown dragon, and finally by a dragon who shook so much she had to be lifted off of the boulder by a friend before she could collapse.

Delta gathered that she had not only been at the sight of the collapse but had also seen her house sucked into the depths of the ocean.

After the last dragon left the stage, the old dragon stepped forwards once again, and began to speak, "I have heard your suggestions and I have listened. For the moment, I think that we should only worry about the dragons who have nowhere to stay. If you would be willing to accomodate them for a short while…"

"Wait," Delta cut him off, "sir, I have a suggestion as well."

He turned to her, looking more than a little exasperated. "Delta, I have tolerated your ingracious behavior and antics because your mother was a dear friend of mine, but you are stretching my patience," he sighed, "ah, I suppose it couldn't hurt to have more suggestions. Go on child."

"Well," Delta said, suddenly nervous, "I think that we should send out a small group of fliers to go and search for a new place to call our home. They could leave when the repairs are going on. It shouldn't affect your other plans too much."

"Hmm," he said, stroking his chin, "I suppose. We would need volunteers, strong fliers and good sea hunters." he raised his voice then, "is anyone willing to go on a quest to find us some new land to call our home?"


	6. Chapter 5

**so, sorry that this has been so long in the making! I've been busy with school, then on a holiday with my family, followed by writer's block! I was cursing my fate when I sat with an empty computer screen in front of me. but finally, here it is! chapter five! enjoy!**

Chapter five

Snowstorm

"I think that Delta should go!" a voice rang out from the crowd.

Snowstorm was craning his neck to see over the multicolored sea of scales.

"She's never been anything but rude to our leaders, not to mention anyone who tries to be kind to her! She should go." the voice of a female dragon called.

A jumble of voices, forming unintelligible chatter to Snowstorm's ears joined in. suddenly the clearing was alive with thoughts and anger, and Snowstorm had _no idea_ who they were talking about. Finally, the dragons in front of him had the sense of mind to move apart long enough for him to catch a glimpse of the dragon standing on the ledge next to the leader of the group. It was the dragon who had assigned his nickname, _frost breath_. She looked shocked, apprehensive, and devious.

"Me?" She squeaked. "Why do I have to go? Shouldn't, oh, I don't know, the best flier go, or something?"

"No, I think that it's a wonderful idea!" Scallop announced from behind her, "you were, after all, the one who suggested it"

Snowstorm may not have been very good at reading dragons, having spent most of his life alone on top of a mountain, but even he could see that Scallop just wanted to get rid of Delta. He felt sorry for the dragonet. All deviousness gone from her face, she looked lonely and lost. A small dragonet, the color of night had snuggled down on her back, just between her wings.

"Please, you know how bad my flying is," she begged Scallop, "I'll never survive out there! I'll be dead in a day!"

"So? You might succeed, and if you don't, we'll have one less mouth to feed."

Delta stared incredulously at him. "Please…"

"Well, we've probably got to start packing up everything you will need!" Scallop said cheerfully.

Slowly the crowd of dragons dispersed across the barren rocky slopes of the island until there was no one except for Delta, Scallop, and Snowstorm. He turned away slowly, walking just as slowly back to his cave. He noticed that Delta hadn't shed a single tear.

Delta

Looking at the meager supplies spread out before her, Delta felt her despair only deepen.

"Is this it?" she asked, glancing up at Scallop.

"Yes. I'm sorry dear, but we couldn't spare anything else." he gestured at the salt fish, a small pile of berries, a few flasks of clean water, and skinny rabbits spread around her talons. "Giving more to a single dragon for a suicide mission would be irrational."

"Why are you sending me at all if you know that this is a suicide mission? You said it yourself, I have almost no chance of surviving this!"

"Oh, dearest, no one here likes you or your attitude. It is better for you to leave now." he spread his wings as if to embrace her, but she dodged away.

"I can always trust you to be both honest and blunt, _slime weasel_."

Suddenly she felt a talon on her shoulder, and she spun around teeth bared, only to see Frost breath standing behind her. "You had better double those supplies, _slime weasel,_ " he said with a wry smile, no doubt thinking of his own nickname. "Because Delta and I are about to go on the adventure of our soon to be very short lives."

Delta stared up at him, with a half smile on his face, looking directly ahead at Scallop. His ice-pale wing around her was trembling ever so slightly, but it was almost imperceptible. "Why would you do this for me? You know you are causing your own death, right? I don't want to be blamed for it in Paradiso, or whatever."

He barked a laugh. "Ha! I wouldn't blame you, and I can't anyway since I don't believe in that kind of stuff, so don't worry about it."

"Snowstorm, this is completely unprecedented! You don't have to go with this dissident ingrate. She caused her own fate, but she needn't cause yours. Stay here."

Snowstorm glared at him, and Delta felt infinitely grateful to him in that moment, then cursed herself and all three moons. She wouldn't be the cause of this dragons death. "He's right, you know. You really don't have to come. I don't want to be the one to get you killed."

He turned his glare full force upon her. "I've signed up for this now, haven't I? Now go get us some more supplies, if you will."


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter six

Palm

Nightfall was still mad. Or perhaps "mad" was too strong of a word. Severely put out might have been a better option.

"I can't believe you laughed so hard you _fell out of a tree._ " She grumbled.

"I'm sorry. When I heard your name, I just couldn't help myself," Raspberry said, snorting, I know how rude it was, but all I could think was 'the night is falling! Waaah!' and then I was laughing so hard at mostly my own stupidity," she stopped to gasp in a breath, "that I fell out. _Gasp_. of a, _gasp_. Tree! And then I laughed at that!"

"Oh," Palm said, "I didn't know you had a sense of humor.

"Only at other dragon's expense!" Nightfall cried. "You are both terrible friends!"

Palm caught his breath at that word. Friends. No matter how hard he tried to stop it, dragons he cared about always seemed to leave. It was why he had grown up alone.

"That we are, my dear falling night." He said, bumping her wing and trying to sound cheerful.

She huffed, but kept staring ahead forlornly at the horizon, Raspberry following her lead with Palm close behind. It was all they could do. They had been flying for hours, and he could see both of the other dragon's wings trembling with effort. He was sure that his own mirrored theirs, and he could feel the strain in every taut muscle of his shoulders.

He tried to take his mind off the pain by letting it wander. As it always did, it settled on his family. The family that had abandoned him. He didn't hold it against them. He felt that it was in fact his own fault, the result of his own inadequacies it wasn't true, he had only been a very small dragonet, but he couldn't control his thoughts.

When he was young, they had lived in a great desert. Sometimes they would travel with a few other dragons, sometimes alone. He and his little brother would play in the shifting dunes, chasing each other and grappling together playfully when they caught each other. Their parents would watch them, stretched out lazily in the sun, unafraid of the humans. "The desert is no place for the little scavengers. It is ruled by the dragons" his father would tell them each night around the fire. Then Palm would watch as his parents danced together, tails interlaced and talons pressed to each other, spinning and leaping.

But then the humans took over the desert. They built great tracks of black stone and red dirt, and the dragons were forced into hiding. Palm had fallen ill not long after. One morning he awoke with his eyes full of dried pus, and when he opened them his family was gone. He never saw them again.

"Palm! Wake up!"

He was snapped out of his memories by Nightfall shouting in his ear.

"Ow!" he cried, "why'd you have to scream in my ear?"

"Because I can see land, you slime for brains idiot. We should land and take a break!"

"Wait, you can see land? Like, actual land? Not a floating heap of rotting leaves?" Raspberry came swooping up from below, having fallen behind while they flew. "I can't see anything at all. Well, except for water that is."

"Yes!" Nightfall shouted, excited out of her scales. Palm felt that her excitement was contagious, and felt hope rising in the pit of his stomach. "Just over there, see?" she pointed a talon at a small dark smudge on the horizon.

"I see it!" Palm and Raspberry chorused joyously. Then glanced at each other and laughed.

Delta

Delta, Snowstorm, and the dragonet all sat around a small fire. They were on a tiny islet with a patch of trees that could be generously described as a thicket. When they had seen the island on the horizon, Delta had hoped that it would be the end of their journey, but the island was far too small to house even a small group of dragons. The forest around them was dark, but the glow of the firelight was comforting. It warmed their cold scales and gave everything a golden tint.

"Why did we have to bring him along?" Snowstorm grumbled, glancing at the tiny dragonet curled asleep at Delta's talons. After he had been given a good wash, his scales were revealed to not be black or even brown, but a fiery crimson that gleamed in the light of the dancing flames.

"He refused to stay behind." she answered with a shrug, "plus, I don't trust that slime weasel of a leader to take proper care of him." she wrapped a wing protectively around him.

"Well, you certainly seem to have a maternal instinct." Snowstorm said with a sigh. "How do you manage to stand up to the leader of all the dragons one minute and be so kind and caring the next?"

"Practice," Delta informed him with a serious nod of her head. "I used to be a nurse in a hospital in some big human town.

Snowstorm snorted a laugh. "And I'm the queen of sunshine."

"You know, you put your life on the line to come with me on this journey, but I realize that I don't know anything about you at all. You are so cold to everyone that I think we all just assumed that you had a bad childhood." Delta said, tipping her snout to the stars just visible through the canopy of leaves.

"Oh no. I had a wonderful childhood. When my parents discovered that I had such an interest in the stars they and some of their," here he paused for a second, as though weighing his words carefully, "friends, built me an observatory on top of a mountain. I had everything I wanted, and they were always kind. I didn't see them much, but I preferred to be alone anyway. But what about you? You weren't really a nurse in a hospital, were you?"

'No, of course not. I never knew my father, but my mother was the greatest parent a dragon could ask for. She was kind and always looked out for me. She could make me laugh when I was sad as a little dragonet. She was a little overbearing though, and so one day I had had enough and I left." _and when I came back, she was so far gone into the illness that she didn't even recognize me._

"Scallop had been a family friend when I was very little, but as I grew up we saw less and less of him. After the comet hit, I found him on the island. And I stayed there. More and more dragons started coming, and you know the rest." she thought for a moment before continuing.

"I suppose we were complete opposites as dragonets. But look at us now." there was no answer, and Delta realized she was talking to air. Snowstorm was snoring quietly on the other side of the fire.

Delta had been dozing in and out of sleep, her dreams plagued by fire and ice, of giant dragons and earthquakes that split a wartorn earth. Mountains shuddered and shook beneath heavy clouds and lightning.

She awoke properly when a twig snapped behind her. Her first instinct was to leap at the sound, but instead, she reached over the embers that remained of their fire and gently nudged Snowstorm.

"Wake up. Shh, don't start. I think that there is something in the woods. Something big."

He was instantly alert, ears pricked and head swiveling back and forth. "I don't hear…" he began to say, but stopped abruptly as another few branches snapped around them.

"Show yourself!" Delta yelled into the darkness. The wind whistled through the branches, making a sound disturbingly similar to moaning.

She shrieked as the sky fell on her head.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Nightfall

"I am so _hungry_!" Raspberry exclaimed, her stomach adding it's unmelodic agreement. "If I don't eat I am going to _die_!" She was sprawled on the moss-covered stump of a wide tree, her green color nearly matching, so she appeared to be disappearing into the background.

Nightfall had to agree, but she didn't want to show it in front of Palm. The moment that they had arrived on the small patch of land that could generously be called an island, both she and the other female dragonet had collapsed from even though she could see that he was just as tired as they were, he was diligently stalking through the undergrowth around their clearing. Whether he was searching for prey or possible danger, she didn't know.

Finally, he sat back, tail disturbing the leaves resting around him. "Ok, it's safe," he said quietly, breathing out a sigh of relief, "we should probably go and find something to feed my poor friend before she turns into a dry pile of bones."

Both he and Nightfall laughed at that, and Raspberry sent them a withering glare. "All I _meant_ was that I haven't eaten in a few days, and with my very delicate health I have to keep up a steady stream of nutrients." she raised her snout into the air.

"Delicate my foot," Palm said with a snort, "who was it that once ate an entire jaguar and then claimed that I had eaten it?

"Well…" Raspberry trailed off, apparently searching for a way out, "I was, that is, I didn't… you ate my pineapple!" she suddenly shouted.

Nightfall exploded into laughter, with Palm following suit a few moments later when he got over his shock.

"I don't think that counts!" Nightfall laughed, gasping for breath. Raspberry directed her glare at the other dragon.

"For your information, it was the biggest pineapple I had ever seen! And I was saving it for a special occasion. Then one day I went back home, and it was gone! An hour late I found this idiot sprawled in the sun, completely covered in sticky juice! He ate it all!"

"She then proceeded to roll me down the hill." Palm informed them with a thoughtful nod, which got him a tail in the face.

An hour later, with full bellies and drooping wings, the dragonets settled down to try and sleep. Nightfall felt her exhaustion throughout her body, but her mind was buzzing. Palm and Raspberry curled up together, their talons touching and tails entwined. They looked like dancers frozen in time mid waltz, and Nightfall felt that if she disturbed them they would crumble into splinters of ice. Nightfall felt oddly left out. She hardly knew these dragons, and yet she wished that she could curl up against them.

Nightfall stood up quietly, shaking out her wings and stepping over a stray tail that twitched lazily against the ground. She rose quietly into the star covered curtain of a sky, the wind from her gently beating wings stirring the leaves on the trees below her. She looked out at the horizon, just a slightly lighter blue than everything else. She thought it was interesting that even long after the sun had set, the sky seemed to hold the light as though it had captured it in a bottle.

 _But what would that make me then?_ She wondered, still looking at the horizon, _am I just someone's plaything? Trapped within a miniature false world?_

She swept her gaze back to the island, back to where her companions were still asleep, but something else caught her attention. It was only for a moment, but it looked like sparks had just flared up out of a fireplace as a log settled back down into the embers. Nightfall wished fervently that she was just back in her little home in the most remote mountains she could find. It was so warm and cozy, just large enough for a bedroom and a sitting room. She had built it with her own claws and lived there happily by herself for most of her life. But this wasn't her home. That had been swept away by the floods that followed the breaking of the moon.

This was a strange forest.

On a strange island.

And she was only a five-year-old dragonet, and there was something out there.

Probably something a lot bigger than her, or something stronger.

Most likely a rather large, grumpy dragon.

Nightfall cast one last forlorn glance towards her camp and swooped off towards where the sparks had leapt only moments before. The trees raced below her, and now she could see the faint glow of a fire burning down to its last embers. She was nearly on the other side of the island by the time she suddenly realized that she was directly above the flames that she had glimpsed earlier. There were humped shadows just barely outlined by a red glow, and that was so dim that Nightfall couldn't make out the shapes properly.

She landed gently, her talons brushing against the soft earth as her wings snapped shut. She crept forwards until her snout was in line with the edge of the trees. The shape on the opposite side of the fire shifted, and Nightfall stepped back quickly. As she heard the branch snap under her, she cursed herself silently.

The dragon nearly directly in front of her sat up sleepily, glancing around. Then the dragon reached across the fire and nudged the other shape. The first dragon growled something quietly to the other. The second replied, then both were suddenly silent as Nightfall took off again, not caring how many branches she broke this time.

"Show yourself!" a female voice called out.

Nightfall knew that it was too late to fly away by then, as she knew that soon the two dragons below her would soon look to the sky. So instead of flying higher and faster, she let herself drop like a stone, right on top of the first dragon.

They rolled and grappled, and Nightfall just narrowly missed the still glowing embers of the dying fire. She kicked out at the other dragon - who, as she had guessed, was quite a bit bigger than her - and was rewarded with a fierce scratch on her snout. She growled and shoved the other dragon off of her. She crouched, panting, with wings raised and teeth bared.

"Stop! Both of you stop it! Can't you see that she is just a dragonet?" the noise came from the other side of the fire, from the dragon that she hadn't even been paying attention to until then.

As she caught a glimpse of his pale scales, she felt a shock of surprise and whipped her head towards her opponent who was glaring at him.

"Well, I guess I was right when thought you were grumpy," Nightfall spat, "Delta."


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Raspberry

Raspberry was pulled from sleep as she falt a talon on her shoulder. She blearily blinked her eyes, trying to disperse the last grasping remnants of sleep. She sat up and glanced around. The forest around her was pitch black, and she could see the glimmer of stars through the swaying branches above her.

 _I hate mornings badly enough as it is,_ she thought bitterly, _without being woken up in the middle of the night._

She turned her head, eyes narrowed, to the dragon who had pulled her from her dreams. To her surprise, it wasn't a dragon she recognized. The dragon with pale scales was standing over Raspberry, and as she sat up he glanced down at her, "Raspberry?" he asked, sounding unreasonably nervous.

He must have seen her eyes widening surprise because he quickly tried to reassure her. "Don't worry," he reached a talon out towards her, "Nightfall sent me to get you and Palm."

Raspberry spat, feeling as though she had a foul taste in her mouth. _That she-devil. who does she think she is, sending strange dragons to_ retrieve _us?_

"It's true Raspberry." Palm was suddenly standing behind the white dragon, Raspberry leaped to her feet, her tail lashing. She was glad in that moment that they couldn't see her conflicting emotions. "Apparently Nightfall found and attacked them. Snowstorm," he gestured to the other dragon, "is an old friend of Nightfall's."

"Yes!" the dragon, _Snowstorm,_ leaped at the explanation like a dragonet after a spot of light. "We used to know each other on the island. Surely she told you about the island?"

 _Yes, that was right,_ Raspberry realized, _she had mentioned something like that._ Her tail stilled against the cyfe of the forest floor, and her wings relaxed down again. "Okay, I get that. But why are you here, and _why did you wake me up in the middle of the night_!"

Snowstorm

Snowstorm felt the irritated gaze of the female dragonet flying behind him piercing his tail like so many icicles. He had absolutely _no_ idea why she was so mad. Sure, she had just been woken up in eh middle of the night by a strange dragon, but even that couldn't make her _this_ angry. He wondered if it was something else, or maybe she just _really_ wasn't a morning dragon.

The other dragonet, Palm, flew with strong wingbeats beside him. His scales gleamed with a cold golden glow. Snowstorm decided that it couldn't quite be called silver since there was an obvious yellowish sheen beneath the moonlight, but it came pretty close. Snowstorm's own wings stood out like a glowing search beam in the darkness, the moon turning them an even paler silver white. He thought that it was interesting that he couldn't quite seem to just call their colorings silver, but didn't dwell on it. He could see the small flickering gleam of the campfire up ahead and beyond that the vast emptiness of the neverending ocean. Sometimes he wondered what the ocean would look like if it was instead great dunes of sand, or snow…

"Hey!" Raspberry called out behind him, "watch out. I think we've passed your camp."

Snowstorm turned his head only to see that, in fact, they had just passed the smoldering campfire. He cursed and spun around, his tail nearly hitting Palm in the face with its momentum, then dove down to land next to Delta.

She jumped, then glared at him. "What are you doing?" she hissed, "Nightfall and the other dragonet are sleeping!"

He grinned at her, "how long are we going to keep calling him 'the other dragonet' for? It already seems like we adopted him, so we should at least know his name."

"Idiot," she muttered, and accidentally brought her tail down on a log resting on the edge of the fire, sending a shower of sparks in a shining arc about them. She yelped and shook of the embers that had settled onto her tail.

Snowstorm heard a cough behind him and turned to see the other two dragons standing behind him. Palm was awkwardly glancing at his talons, while Raspberry stared disdainfully at everyone in the clearing. Nightfall had described her as such a sweet little dragonet, he was beginning to doubt that these were the correct dragons. This Raspberry seemed positively sour.

He laughed at his own joke.

"Well, if you two are finished with your _extremely_ interesting little talk, can we please wake everyone up so that we can get on with the conversation and then I can finally **get to sleep**?"

Delta cleared her throat, "yes, of course." she stepped over the tiny sleeping form of the tiny dragonet and put a talon on Nightfall's shoulder. The younger dragon blinked her eyes blearily as Delta shook her, a little bit roughly Snowstorm thought.

"What?" she yawned, "why is it still dark out. Oh." the last word was uttered after she realized that it was Delta who had woken her. "What do you want?"

"Your friends are here. We think that we should all sit down and talk like one big happy family."

"We're not friends." Raspberry piped up and was instantly shushed by Palm.

"I don't care," Delta spun on her, "whether you're friends, enemies or dragonets from the same womb, will you please just shut your mouth for one moment and let us actually talk?"

Raspberry shut her mouth compliantly, then looked guiltily at her talons.

"So. why are you all here? Why are you away from the island Nightfall?"

"Can I ask a question?" Palm asked, sitting up straight from his crouched position near the fire. "Why does it seem that everyone here hates Nightfall? And how exactly do you know each other?"

"I don't hate Nightfall." Delta said smoothly, "we just never saw eye to eye on eh matter of the island. She was there from the very start, even before scallop or I showed up. She also never told us anything about herself. Nightfall has always considered the island to be our savior."

"while you have always had more of a 'let's get the hell out of here as soon as we can' mindset." Nightfall shot back, "where else do you want us to go? The island is our home. We can't just leave it."

Snowstorm was silent for a moment, shifting uncomfortably on his talons. "Actually, that's exactly why we're out here," he said sheepishly. Delta shot him a glare, while Nightfall just looked incredulous.

"What, are you running away? How do you expect to survive out here?"

"We're not running away." Delta snarled, "the island started to collapse, so we were sent out to find somewhere else for all of the other dragons to live."

"How about we help you?" Palm sat up perkily, his ears pricked forwards. "We were just heading to the island, but if it's not safe anymore, what better way to help our future tribe mates than to find their new home?" he asked excitedly.

"Sounds like a suicide mission to me." Nightfall and Raspberry said simultaneously, then glanced in surprise at the other. Snowstorm thought that is was amusing how similar they were in certain ways.

"Well, I think not!" Palm cried, "okay. It's settled then. We will help to search for new land!"

 _He really is like an overexcited puppy._ Snowstorm thought with a snort.

 **...**

 **Hey there, and thank you for reading chapter eight of The Scorching: Legends of Pyrrhia! I hope that you are all enjoying the story, and will continue to enjoy it for the chapters to come!Ii will be trying to update more frequently for the last few chapters, so watch out for that!**

 **-Nightfall100**

 **Note: Cyfe: literally Crap You Find Everywhere. Refers to the dead leaves, dirt, and pine needles found on teh forest floor. A term used at a camp that I go to.**


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey everyone, nightfall here. I hope you are all enjoying the story, and that I continue to surprise and engage you! here's the next chapter. I know that I promised to post more often and then I looked back and it had been almost the same time! time sure flies. So warning, all of the characters and, *cough cough* myself as well, kind of let off a little steam in this chapter, ha ha... Just be aware of that. Well, I** ** _promise_** **to post the next chapter sooner! Now enjoy and please follow favorite and/or review! Also, please feel free to put in any suggestions for the future of this story! See you next time!**

Chapter 9

Palm

Palm was regretting his enthusiasm. Really regretting it, in fact, he wished that he had just stayed on the 'floating compost heap'. His wings ached and his fatigue from the day before was not helped by his nearly sleepless night. He wished that he could just sleep. Raspberry seemed to be in a similar state, and Nightfall looked no better off. All of them seemed to be drooping, and the water seemed ever closer.

The day wore on, and the sun sank lower and lower in the sky. Dark clouds were just beginning to gather around the horizon to the east, they seemed sinister and Palm was beginning to think that they wouldn't find anywhere to land and sleep, and he felt the dread rising in his stomach as the sun painted the water on the horizon a deep fiery gold.

"Palm?" He heard Raspberry's quavering voice from behind him. He wearily turned his head to look between his beating wings at her.

"How do we even know which way to go?" She asked quietly. He slowed his pace a little so that they were flying side by side. "I mean, the sun's almost set. And what are we looking for anyway? One tiny island in the entire ocean? We are going to all die out here!" She cried.

Palm was usually very patient with Raspberry and her dramatics, but he was just as tired as she was and his sleep-deprived brain could take no more of it. "Well. I'm sorry for getting us into this, but you could at least just stay quiet! Look at Nightfall, she's even younger than us and she hasn't complained a bit.

It was true, Nightfall had been flying with trembling wings and her face set into a grimace, but she hadn't spoken a word or complaint all day. Nevertheless, it was the wrong thing to say. Raspberry snarled, her face twisting in anger. "Well, why don't you just go fly with little miss perfect instead!"

"I will." He snapped back, "And when I do you'll be sorry for being so rude." He sped up until he was flying next to Nightfall instead. His childhood friend snorted behind him, then they lapsed into silence once again.

By the time they saw the dark splotch on the horizon, the clouds behind them had turned to a full-blown storm. Thunder rumbled behind them and lightning arched across the sky. The island was only visible because it was directly backlit by the thin halo of flame that was all that remained of the sun. Palm felt the sense of dread lift slightly from his shoulders, and he beat his wings harder in a final push of energy. He could hear the dragons around him also picking up speed, but he was so stiff he couldn't turn his neck to look at them.

As the island grew from a smudge to a talon print on the horizon, the storm behind them was closing in. The air felt heavy around him and electricity crackled around them. His scales itched, his muscles ached and his eyes were tired from straining against the sun.

He heard a gasp behind him and managed to turn his head in time to see Nightfall lose the wind current under her wings and start to spiral down towards the water below them. As he shot down after her, he wondered belatedly if he would even have the strength to help at all. He shot under the falling dragon and her weight dropped heavily against his back, he gasped but managed not to fall himself. The added weight did nothing to help his aches and pains, but he refused to let her fall into the ocean which would be all too happy to swallow her up forever.

"Palm!" She gasped, and he gritted his teeth to keep flying, "what are you doing?"

"Saving your tail! What happened?"

"I'm sorry. I haven't really been sleeping since I left the island. And I don't see the point in only saving my tail, though I'm sure it would be a good moment for you to remember me by." She shifted, then Palm felt her weight lift off of his back. He breathed a sigh of relief, and he they rose up to fly at the same altitude as the other dragons.

Snowstorm looked on with obvious worry in his face, while Delta seemed concerned but weighed down by her own burden, the dragonet that they had named Jasper in honor of his deep red scales. Raspberry stared off into the distance, the look on her face only mirroring the storm behind them.

 _Not behind us,_ Palm realized, _it's all around us now._

And it was true. Rain was starting to beat down around them, running in rivulets between the dragons' scales, settling into the creases of the ever beating wings that felt about ready to fall off.

"We have to make it to that island!" Snowstorm shouted over the din of the storm.

Everyone was too tired to answer him, but they stoically flew until at last they reached the island that they had glimpsed from afar. This one was merely a steep spire of rock rising from the ocean with a few scraggly trees clinging to the slopes, but the multitude of caves provided ample coverage for the dragons. They huddled together in a cave, wet wings overlapping in the enclosed space while the storm raged outside.

Raspberry was staring forlornly out of the entrance, but Palm was too tired to pay her too much mind. His wings were aching and the muscles all along his back felt taut and sore. Even his claws ached. He wished for a warm fire, or even the desert for moons sake. Anything was better than here. But this was the world he lived in now, and he doubted that that would ever change.

"What are you looking at?" Raspberry snapped and he realized that, though he had been staring off into space, she had thought that he had been looking at her.

"Ah, no I'm sorry. I wasn't looking…" He trailed off as this only seemed to infuriate her all the more. "Raspberry! What have I done wrong? I wasn't staring at you!"

"That's not it! You don't understand! You _never_ understand!" She snapped back.

"Hey, hey!" Snowstorm said soothingly. "I think that the long day of flying has gotten everyone in a tizzy. Let's just rest. Everything will look better in the morning."

Both dragonets ignored him, "of course I don't understand! You haven't explained it to me! I don't know why, but all day your tail's been in a knot like never before."

Snowstorm looked between the two dragonets helplessly while Delta looked on with apparent disinterest.

"Raspberry, please! Palm…" Nightfall tried to interrupt

"Of course you would support him!" Raspberry cried, spinning to face her, "and you always will support him, because you're both in love with each other, and now Palm is never going to pay any attention to me! But I suppose that's just how it is. You work for something and then the World tears it away. Home, friends, family, all the things we strive for are taken by the World's cruel sense of humor. Well, the World can disappear for all I care. Everything is rotten and I wish that…" _I could disappear along with it into the peace and quiet of oblivion_. Palm finished mentally.

And with that, Raspberry leapt out of the cave entrance and into the raging storm.


	11. Chapter 10

**Hello! I promised you all an early chapter, so here is one in under a week! I hope you are happy :). I have literally nothing to say here except that I am really tired of raspberry and wish that she would just** ' **Get over it already you stupid she-dragon** ** _.'_** **as Nightfall so eloquently put it.**

 **Also, I will start replying to reviews in this section if I get a couple more.**

 **So let us begin!**

Chapter 10

Nightfall

Nightfall stared as Raspberry cried out "everything is rotten, and I wish that…" and leapt out of the cave. The dragon was hidden by the pounding sheets of rain almost the moment she cleared the opening. One moment green scales were lit by a flash of lightning and the next moment swallowed by the darkness and thunder.

"Someone should probably go get her," Delta said calmly from the back of the cave.

Nightfall whirled on her. "How can you be so calm about this!" she snapped, her anger flaring. She felt like Raspberry's anger had lit a fire in her veins, and now the heat of shame and anger were coursing under her scales.

"She just flew out of here after yelling that you two love each other. I'm not exactly calm but I'm not too worried either!" Delta snapped back, baring her teeth in a snarl. "She won't get very far, and then she'll come flying back in no time. No one is stupid enough to stay out in a storm."

"Raspberry would." Palm's dismal voice came from behind Delta, and she glanced at him. "Ah, ah, I don't mean because she's stupid!" he said quickly after seeing her look, "but I mean that she is stubborn enough to. It would hurt her pride to come back here after that."

"I should go." Nightfall said quietly. _It's all my fault in the first place_ she thought dismally, I _never thought about us that way, but thinking back I guess that it might have seemed like that. I just wanted a friend for the first time in my life, but I just came between them!_

"Nightfall, you can't! You'll get lost or hurt if you go out there!"

"I have to go! This is all my fault in the first place!" _you are only proving her point!_

And Nightfall followed Raspberry's lead and leapt out into the storm.

Instantly the cave was lost to the rain and darkness of the storm and the island was merely a slightly darker smudge against the black expanse. Rain drummed on her wings and she felt laden and heavy. She still hadn't slept and her scales felt like they were made of stone (instead of the light carbon mix that they actually were).

"Raspberry!" she called out. "Where are you!"

She knew that she couldn't hear her. The wind snatched up her words and spun it away from her in an ever loosening spiral of sound. Lightning struck not far from her and bathed everything in a momentary silver light.

She stopped flying as a sudden inspiration struck her. She glanced around, hovering in place. The rain beat against her streaming eyes but even through it she could see the shape outlined in silver against the darkness. The shape that looked like the outline of a slim green dragon (not that she could see the color of the scales on the shadow's wings, but what other dragons would be flying out here in the middle of nowhere during a storm?).

Nightfall flew doggedly on, trying to keep the figure in front of her always within her line of sight. If she ever lost sight of Raspberry she would reorient herself as soon as the lightning next struck. The storm was intensifying, the wind roaring to a screaming fever pitch all around her. The maelstrom (for that was the only thing this storm could possibly be called) swirled around her and Raspberry in circular patterns of rain and sleet. The thunder was barely audible over the howling within and without of Nightfall's head. Her mind was filled with thoughts of what Raspberry had said, her past, her future and, of course, her mind strayed around the problem that was her brother.

When she was a very little dragonet, her brother had looked after her. They had hidden together away from the prying eyes of the day when she was just over two years old they had had an argument which ended with her brother stomping off and shouting that he was never coming back. She had called back that she hoped he never did. And he hadn't. She wasn't overly upset (they had had arguments often enough that she did not hold much fondness for him, even at such a young age), mostly she was just worried about how she was going to survive without someone to look after her. That hadn't stayed a problem for very long. She built herself a little house and lived on for the three more years until the comet hit and swept her and everything else away in the cold clutches of the ocean.

All of a sudden, she burst out of the pounding rain and into the eerie calm that she supposed was the eye of the storm. She saw the green shape winging away from her clearly for the first time. The pale moonlight filtering down through the haze gathered in the eye turned the thick clouds below her to silver.

"Raspberry!" she called and heard her own voice for the first time since flying out of the cave. It was strangely muffled by the clouds around her but it carried to the other dragonet.

Nightfall saw Raspberry stop flying, but she didn't turn around. Her shoulders trembled, but whether from tears or fatigue it was unclear. Either way, Nightfall new that they had to get back as quickly as possible.

"Why did you follow me?" Raspberry said, her voice soft.

"Because flying out into a damn hurricane is insane!" Nightfall had stopped flying as well and so the other dragon's next words were crystal clear.

"I mean, why would you follow me out here when I would just get in your way?"

"What?" Nightfall was startled, "Raspberry, no, I'm not in love with Palm! And I _know_ he's not in love with me either! I'm sorry if it seemed that way, but I've never really known how other dragons act! If it seemed like I was making some kind of advances I swear to the three accursed moons and any human god that I wasn't!"

"Raspberry finally turned to face her. Tears streaked her cheeks and Nightfall was startled by the look in her eyes. She was expecting anger or apology, or perhaps even contempt, but she just saw the eyes of a fearful self-pitying dragon. Nightfall hated how Raspberry seemed to be wrapped up in self-pity. She couldn't believe that she had chased after _this_ dragon, but she couldn't stop now.

"I promise you that if you come back I will stay far away from both you and Palm. After we find the 'new home that Delta wants us to we will never have to see each other again."

"Do you promise that you aren't lying?" Raspberry said in a suspicious, quavering voice.

Nightfall sighed. _Get over it already you stupid she-dragon._

" Yes, I promise." she forced a smile onto her tired face. "We should really get back to the others. It's a good thing I caught up to you when I did. It seems like we both have just enough energy to get back."

Raspberry silently flew up to join her and the two dragons forced their way back into the swirling vortex of the storm.


	12. Chapter 11

**Yay, new chapter! So I don't actually know how long this took me to write since I lost track :). I was really busy with art and school work. In fact, I managed to finish a drawing for 13forlife, some Nanatsu fan art, and two large watercolour projects. Over all a productive few weeks in every aspect but writing. Also, Does anyone know why ff won't let me write in other fonts?**

 **Enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 11

Armada

He sat, watching the dragons fly on their way. He had watched the black dragon fall back to hang around the back of their little group. The silver scales along her back shimmering in the sunlight. Armada watched her stay at just the right distance from the rest of the group, not far enough to seem like she was sulking but not close enough to 'intrude" upon the gold and green dragons in front of her.

Armada shifted the view to watch these two other dragons. Though they were both flying stoically on, the green one kept casting worried glances towards the gold one, who appeared to be ignoring her. Sound was trickling through to Armada, who listened intently.

"Palm, is everything all right?"

"Yeah. I'm just worn out. I can't believe that you and Nightfall are still flying after yesterday.

"Oh, yes." she shifted her head down a bit, as though trying to hide her face beneath her beating wings. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she brought me back, but she shouldn't have come all the way out there to get me."

"Raspberry, maybe you should just consider that maybe, for once, it's actually your fault." the gold dragon said quietly. "She only went out because she felt terrible for driving you off when it has been you excluding her this entire time."

Raspberry looked shocked. "I know that it was my own fault for running off, but I haven't been _excluding_ her!" she sped up, leaving Palm in her wake.

Armada grinned quietly to himself as he stopped watching. He had better prepare for his new arrivals.

Delta

The dragonet snuggled down into her scales. She was getting very tired of having to carry him and she wished that one of the other dragons would take him, but she hadn't asked and they hadn't offered. Delta shifted her wings uncomfortably and nearly lost the wind current underneath of her. She dipped down sharply and cursed under her breath.

They had been flying for almost four days and by Delta thought that every one of them was wishing they had just stayed wherever they had started out. Luckily after so much flying her muscles were getting stronger and now the pain had receded into a sort of stiffness instead. The dragonet on her shoulders seemed to be the only one actually enjoying himself. He would often stick his head up and then make some weird comment that was lost to the roaring wind around them Delta would just agree and he would sit there happily staring at the ocean flash by beneath them.

He did this now, but for once Delta could actually hear what he had said: "What's with that weird cloud…"

"What cloud?"

And then Delta saw the cloud, and she felt a shiver go down her spine. There wasn't anything particularly strange about the cloud other than the fact that the rest of the sky was a clear bright blue. The simple fact was that the cloud just _felt_ wrong. There was just something so unnatural about it. There it floated, puffy and motionless a bit lower and to the north of the group of dragons, and yet it gave her the peculiar sense of being hunted.

"Hey! Do you guys see that cloud?" she called back over her shoulder, but a mere glance told her that they had all seen it and that they felt the same _wrongness_ about it.

"We should probably try to avoid it!" she continued, "everyone, follow me!" she angled her wings to swoop away from the cloud and she heard the wingbeats behind her doing the same. Her new course put the early morning sun at her left. This change in direction set the east wind they had been flying with all morning buffeting against her side. She had to continually shift around to keep on course, but she felt an instant sense of relief as soon as she turned away from the mysterious cloud.

Delta felt vaguely ridiculous for running away from a cloud. Why should she be so worried about a regular occurrence in nature? Despite the lack of other clouds, it was a completely ordinary looking cloud. Greyish-white and fluffy as could be wished for with stray tendrils of cloud peeling off of it in the winds above the ocean. There was nothing _visibly_ wrong with the cloud. Nevertheless, Delta was glad to be flying away from it.

That relief dissipated within the hour when she noticed that the cloud was still _right behind them_. There were only two explanations: one, they had been flying in circles, or two, the cloud was following them. Since she knew that they hadn't flown off course (judging by the sun that was) so it had to be the second option. _The cloud was actually following them._ The thought made her shudder once again, and she signaled that the other dragons behind her should stop.

"Look, if I'm not mistaken the cloud is following us," Delta said as calmly as she could and with as much authority as she could muster.

The other dragons all glanced towards the cloud simultaneously, which was in itself odd. Then Delta looked too just in time to see the cloud rushing towards them at high speeds.

"Fly!" she shouted, turned tail and she _flew._ She flew with all of the strength in her wings and yet it wasn't long before the cloud was nearly upon them. Delta glanced back just in time to see it swallow up first Nightfall, then Palm then Raspberry and Snowstorm until finally the grey cottony mass was upon her. She felt the reaching tendrils grasp her tail.

"Delta! Help!" The dragonet on her back wailed as one of the tendrils managed to grasp him and Delta watched in horror as he was pulled from her back into the roiling cloud. Her distraction, no matter how momentary gave the Thing enough time to pull her in right after him.


	13. Chapter 12

**Hello everyone. Here is my newest chapter! I promised someone that I would write more quickly and slightly longer chapters, soo...**

 **Yes. I hope that you all enjoy it. We get a little look at not just one, but** ** _two_** **mostly new characters.**

 **I should only have another chapter or so, and I will try to keep them to these two narrators. Tell me if you like them. Please enjoy my newest chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 12

Palm

Palm felt like he had been pulled instantly underwater. The cloud that had pulled him in seemed to be no more and he was instead deep under the ocean. Bubbles swarmed around him in great cascades of white and silver in the deep blue light. He glanced around, his vision strangely distorted by the water in his eyes. He couldn't see anything else around him, though he wondered whether that was a result of the water or not. He tried to flip himself around to get upright, but he soon realized that he wasn't sure where up _was._ The bubbles seemed to be going in all directions at once and the pale light was so faint that he couldn't tell where it was coming from either.

He began to feel rather panicked. Since he had never swum in his childhood Raspberry had only taught him recently, he still wasn't used to the feeling of water all around him and always started to panic once underwater.

 _Just calm down._ He told himself, _you're going to be fine._ Nevertheless, his panic intensified and his lungs were soon crying out for air.

 _Am I going to die here? Here where I can't see anything and with no one I know?_ Shadows were starting to creep up along the edges of his vision.

As the darkness claimed him he thought that he heard a far off laugh, echoing through the twilight of the waters around him.

Armada

He looked upon the sleeping dragons. He felt a slight remorse at having brought them here so forcefully, but he brushed it away and soon felt nothing at all. The dragons were lying in a slightly soggy pile on the stone floor. The pale light glittering off their scales cast reflective blue gleam around the walls of the cavern and gave the dragons a ghost-like appearance.

Armada doubted that they would wake up anytime soon. He turned, the sleeves of his robe flying out behind him, and padded softly up the stairs. The strange blue torches continued up along twining stone staircase. They were spaced neatly, one every three stairs. Armada remembered when he had had this place built. The designs had been labyrinthine. At that time he had been particular at every detail, shouting at the strange workmen if they dared to place the wall mounts incorrectly.

These days he didn't care, and took little notice if one of the torches flared out, merely pausing for a moment to relight it. A doorway loomed ahead of him, and he stepped out into a starry clear night. Or not quite clear. The strange cloud hovered just outside of the smooth glass dome of the observatory. Despite this, the sky was remarkably visible, even through the worn and ancient glass.

Armada sat down at the desk in the middle of the circular room. The floor sloped down ever so slightly so the desk was at the lowest point. He set the palely glowing orb on one of the higher shelves spinning in its tracks, and the light grew stronger. He dipped his pen into the ink pot and began to write.

 _The dragons finally arrived here. Caught flying near the Observatory. They seem to have many different variations of scale color and body size, though this may be simply because of their age. I wonder if they have any specific adaptations? I suppose I could ask, though I doubt that they will be particularly friendly towards me after the little incident. I will write more on this subject later. I have to go and bar the cave that they are sleeping in. they should awaken soon._

Armada wiped his pen on a dark handkerchief and pulled the nib out. He quickly screwed the lid onto his ink pot and stopped the spinning orb. He stood up and glanced at the soft shade of pink inching up from the sea. Soon the sun would chase away the stars and illuminate the flashing gold running in complex patterns around the observatory. Some philosopher once wrote, " _I have been witness to a thousand dawns, but never have I lost the wonder I felt upon seeing my first."_. Armada now knew this to be untrue. He had watched the sun rise and set more times than he could count and the mystic dawn the philosopher had described had not visited him for as long as he could remember. He felt nothing as the golden rays of the sun broke over the horizon and caught in his eyes. He merely turned around and walked back into the strange gloom of the underground caverns.

Armada reached the bottom of the stairs and found that all of the dragons were still sleeping soundly. He sighed. He supposed that they were already exhausted without his interference, and so it was only logical that they should be sleeping. Despite this, he realized that he had felt a faint flame of excitement. Armada sighed again, and pulled the brass handle near to the entrance of the cave. A set of gleaming bars rose up smoothly from the metal plates on the floor. He settled himself down on the bottom stair, his fingers tracing the small indentations on the smooth black stone. Armada decided that he would just sit and wait for the dragons.

A small drip of water was falling onto a stalagmite. _Tick, tick, tick._

He could wait. That was one of the things he was good at. He hardly noticed the hours ticking by anymore. He could just sit, and sit, and sit…

Armada let his mind wander. He didn't do this often, as he found that the past was even more infuriating than the present. He didn't remember very much of his life these days. Most of it had been clouded by the years. Most of his visible memories were fairly recent, and from one of his least favorite times.

Armada shifted to get more comfortable, succeeding in banishing his memories in the process. He decided that it wasn't worth his mental capacity to re-live past events. He let his mind fade out while watching the water _tick, tick, tick_ , onto the stalagmite.

 **…**

Crimson had been awoken by a strange reverberation. It echoed through the floor and into his bones. It hurt his ears and he rubbed at them absently. He pushed himself up and glanced around. While he had seen the cell through his bleary eyes earlier when he had still been half asleep, he was rather surprised. The cell was smooth cut stone, all apart from the natural pillars that were spaced around the outside of the room. The entrance, smooth blocks of marble, was barred by a straight row of golden spokes.

That was when he realized what had caused the reverberation. _The bars were open._

And so they were. The floor of the doorway was smooth and open apart from the flat metal plates on the floor. Though no light filtered down into the underground chamber, Crimson could tell that it was already late in the afternoon.

He glanced quickly at the other still sleeping dragons, his gaze lingering momentarily on Delta. He stepped tentatively out into the passageway. He walked past the place that the bars had been a moment before and up to the stairs.

A sudden clang behind him made him spin around. The bars were still vibrating from the force of impact. The gold quivered, holding his attention. He looked to the darker lever, wondering who could have pulled it without his noticing.

The faintest of noises drew his attention to the stairs behind him, and he half turned, keeping an eye on the bars as he looked to the stairs.

There was a boy standing there.

He stood on the first of the stairs, leaning forwards, his bare toes gripping the stone of the step. He looked as if the tiniest wind would knock him over. Crimson noticed that the boy wasn't much smaller than himself.

The boy turned his head to look at Crimson.

"Are you awake?" he turned himself fully towards the young dragon.

"Ah, yes," Crimson muttered, unsure of what else to say. He didn't remember turning himself, but he was facing the boy head on and it was making him uncomfortable.

"That's good. Will you come up to the Observatory with me?" the boy asked, already turning and starting up the stairs without waiting for the dragon to answer.

Crimson followed doggedly behind him, his talons scraping painfully at the stone of the stairs. He was barely one year old and had to scramble up the steps.

 _How is that boy doing it? His legs are even shorter than mine!_ Crimson thought as he scrambled up the last of the stairs to find himself in a great glass dome. The sun was setting in a great sweep of gold and red against the western horizon.

The shadow of the boy was outlined against the blazing sun. his outline seemed to waver in the heat that the last fading rays poured through the clear glass. The water glimmered like a streak of blood, and Crimson felt a strange awe overtake him.

"Welcome, to my observatory."


	14. Chapter 13

**So, hello everyone. I am back again with the final chapter of Scorching! I'm sorry for the wait, I had really bad writer's block...**

 **Well, I have decided to dedicate this final chapter to that one Irish person who viewed this story a total of 24 times. even though there are only 14 chapters...**

 **And thank you to both Hourglass Cipher and 13forlife for always reading my newest chapters!**

 **I hope that everyone enjoys the final chapter of this, my first fanfiction.**

 **PS. watch out for random perspective changes.**

 **Sincerely, Nightfall100**

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Chapter 13

Crimson stood in awe as the sun sank slowly below the horizon. The water shimmered like broken glass.

"How did you make all of this?" he asked the boy standing at the edge of the dome.

"I just designed it. I had a group of workers build it for me," The boy said, not even bothering to turn around. Crimson had trouble making him out against the fading light.

Crimson humphed, and walked towards the boy. His claws clicked along the mural set into the floor of the observatory, the inlaid gold nearly blinding in its reflective radiance.

"I meant, I never saw anything like this, though I don't 'member much before the flooding. I'm too little to really know anything before it."

"You don't really speak like you're that young," The boy said.

"Yeah, well it was the one thing I was ever any good at. Delta says that I talk all the time. I'm really grateful to Delta for taking me away from the island, but I hate that she treats me like such a baby."

Armada was silent. The young dragonet's chatter had faded into the background. The only thing on his mind was the bloody glow of the sun. it reflected in his eyes and stirred… nothing.

Armada sighed, and turned around, "Crimson, could you please go and get the other dragons?"

Crimson stopped mid-speech, "Why?"

"Well, I need them here. I thought that since you were awake, perhaps they would be waking up as well. If that is so, please just lead them up here. If not, please wake them up yourself."

"Okaaaaay. What should I tell them?" Crimson said sceptically.

"You don't really need to tell them anything, just bring them up here. I can explain everything, so don't worry about it, okay?" Armada said as sweetly as he could without seeming false. It worked.

"Okay!" And the dragonet ran off down the stairs into the bowels of the observatory.

Armada stood and waited, his face cast into shadows as the sun was swallowed up by the ocean. As the last tendrils of light ebbed from the room, he heard the skittering talons scrambling back up the stairs. He turned to see Crimson peeking his head over the top step, panting for breath like a large dog.

"Hey… I got" pant pant "the others." The 'others' stalked cautiously up the stairs.

The big brown one was, of course, in front. The white dragon was hard on her tail, and she flicked it irritably to keep him behind her. Armada could just see a pair of green ears poking up behind them, but their owner was hidden by the dragons at the top of the stairs.

"Crimson, what's going on here?" The dragon he presumed to be Delta, asked from the stairwell.

"Delta!" Crimson affirmed Armada's guess, "this is… this human is… What's your name again?"

Armada sighed again. Dragons. Such suspicious creatures. Worse than most humans in fact.

"I'm glad that you are all finally awake. So, can we get down to the business at hand?" Armada said cheerily.

"What business?" asked Delta. She was so easily tricked, which was unfortunate for someone of such reasonable intelligence.

"Well, you all came here for a reason, if I'm not mistaken." which I most often am not, "do you need me to refresh your memory? Oh well, I suppose a small reminder could not hurt anyone. You were all," Armada pointed at the dragons who had now shuffled up from the stairs, "searching for a new place to call home. A new place to live."

"What is it to you?" Palm said from the edge of the group. Ever astute, he had picked up on the slight scorn in Armada's voice, "Up here, you don't seem to have any problems, do you? You have a nice safe place to stay. Why should you care about us?"

Nightfall nodded her agreement, while the owner of the green ears, Raspberry, glared at both her and Armada. Crimson had busied himself with the desk in eh middle of the observatory, and armada gently guided him away with a quick "Please don't touch that, some of those things are basically priceless." before answering the golden dragon's question.

"You're right, you got me. I don't care at all whether you live or die. I'm just bored of staring at the ocean.

"But that's not eh truth either, is it?" Palm asked, trying to keep a cool head despite the thin human's patronizing voice. "I'm not sure what, but…"

"Palm, leave him alone!" Snowstorm said through gritted teeth. He leaned towards Palm, his eyes glittering coldly, scales clattering. "Would you rather continue flying towards a goal we don't even know exists, or just stop and rest. We're all exhausted. So don't antagonize him. If you do, I might have to personally dismember you."

Palm gulped. He didn't like the idea of that at all, and he didn't doubt that the cold dragon before him was capable of such a thing.

"I'm sorry," Palm bowed his head towards the bemused human.

"Well, now that that's out of the way. Can I continue?"

The dragons nodded in agreement, and as he glanced away, heat flaring under his scales Palm noticed Nightfall looking back at him from the other end of the row of dragons. When she caught him looking, she subtly tilted her head towards the boy. He didn't get the chance to watch further as the human started to speak again.

"As you all know, when the comet crashed into the earth, our planet was knocked off of its axis and many of the glaciers melted, forming the world that you see before you today." he gestured at the expanse of water and reflected stars beyond the glass dome.

Once again, all of the dragons nodded, their heads bobbing in unison.

"So, what I propose is this: I have the ability to work these changes to your advantages. I can make this world habitable once again for you and your kind.

"Really? You could do that?" Raspberry burst out, taking a step towards him. "I could finally be on the ground, like a normal creature, not having to live just above the water?"

"Yes, impatient green creature, you could live on the ground. Now, may I finish? Thank you. As I was saying, I can reform some aspects of the world. Of course, something like that isn't free."

Palm cursed his fate silently. What could they give to this person? What did humans even want?

"Oh, I can see you worrying over there," this was directed at Nightfall, "No fear. You can all easily supply what I need. And you could even get a little something extra out of the bargain."

"Why us?" Raspberry piped up. "Why would you want to help dragons, I mean, you're human, so why not find a few humans and help them instead."

The boy smiled, "well, there aren't very many humans left in the first place. On top of this, they don't have the same abilities that you do. They could never have come all the way here as you did. And even if they had, they do not suit my purposes. You remember how I said I needed something?" Palm snorted. He had said this mere moments before. Of course they remembered. The boy paid him no mind, "well, I think that the truth is, after the world is re-ordered, knowledge of the past can't be retained.

"Right now, you are all aware of science, am I correct in my assumption? I can see I am. Well, in this new world, no one will. You will be as you were two thousand years ago, without modern science or technology. You will have to work your way up from the very bottom. I can take this knowledge as your payment. In all honesty, it would be better for you not to have it anyway. This is a fresh start. All of your sins will be wiped clean. You can build new societies, uninfluenced by the mistakes of the past. No gods will look down upon you, no haunting spirits of societies long since past." he stretched a hand forwards, "do you accept my offer?"

When none of the dragons replied, he clapped his hands together, "all right, then we are agreed. So, as I promised, I said that you could all get something a little bit extra out of this. As you will each be leading your own tribe, I will allow you to each chose a special skill or adaptation."

"Wait, leading our own tribe?" Delta exclaimed.

"Yes, tribe. It is a group of people, or in this case dragons, generally who share some kind of familial relationship, living together and helping for the sake of the group."

"I know what a tribe is, but shouldn't we all work together?"

"No no no, you all working together is no fun. In all societies, there must be rivalry. Now that I think of it," he tapped his chin, "there are six of you. That splits much too evenly." the boy snapped his fingers. "I know! Seven is a good number, don't you think?"

And suddenly Palm wasn't sure if they ever had been six. The blue dragon glancing confusedly around was as familiar as his own talon, though Palm had the feeling that he had never seen her before.

"Nebula?" Delta asked, her own confusion clear in her voice, "were you…"

"Well, now that we're all here, let's begin. Nebula dear, as I was saying before, I will grant you any one wish to be shared among your new tribe! It could allow you to be specifically adapted to one habitat, or it could just be some ability like flame resistance or something! Now, since you just arrived, you can go first. What is your wish?"

Nebula blinked slowly, "It could be anything? Like, maybe… hmm. Can I have some time?"

"No, our few remaining hours are trickling by steadily! Chose quickly, tick tock." he tapped his wrist meaningfully, though the gesture was lost on Palm.

"Then, I guess, since there's so much water, could I be able to live underwater?" Palm realised that Nebula didn't know that the human could change the water levels, but it was too late to tell her that.

"Excellent! Good choice. Nest up, you. The white dragon." he pointed to Snowstorm. "Your choice now."

"What? I… I can't just choose! Not without time." Snowstorm sputtered.

"Well, as I said, we don't have time. If you can't choose, I'll do it for you. Next dragon. You, goldy."

Palm twitched at the nickname. "I guess, I grew up in the desert. I would really like to go back there with my family."

The choosing continued on in this manner, with Raspberry never once glancing at Palm as she made her choice, and Delta also having hers chosen. Crimson's wish was to be expected of a young dragonet. "Super strong, fast. Really big fire!" he said with his eyes shining. The human patted the tiny dragon's head as he accepted his wish.

Finally, he turned to Nightfall. "It's my turn then?" she said quietly, "Then, I wish…"

"Oh, no, Nightfall. You made your choice long ago," He turned away from the dragon staring open-mouthed after him. "Now, I would tell you to say your goodbyes, but you will see each other, even if you won't remember this whole affair!"

"We won't remember?" Delta asked, surprised, "well then, how will we explain what happened?"

The human shrugged, "I don't know. I'm sure you will come up with something, whether it be a great fire or the scarlet death. Now, are you all ready?"

Palm stumbled over to where Nightfall and Raspberry stood close together. "I suppose this is goodbye?" he said.

"It's all happening so fast. This isn't what I wanted!" Raspberry cried, "I just wanted us to be together. Promise me, you won't forget, right?" she looked up at Palm, tears streaking down her smooth scales. Nightfall stood apart, looking on sadly.

"I promise Raspberry. I'll find you, and we can be best friends just like always." He wrapped a comforting wing around her.

Then he looked at Nightfall, "Isn't it strange that a human should be able to do stuff like this?" He asked.

She looked at him strangely. As a faint glow began within the observatory, the last words Palm heard before the world was consumed around him were: "He never said anything..."

 **Even if you forgot again,**

 **I'm sure that we can meet again in the next future**

 **Also, the world that we have unfortunately understood was cruel**

 **But I'm sure that we can laugh off that**

 **That's why, please remember**

 **As one faces forward, even though it's only a little**

 **Before the sun goes down,**

 **Let's set out to end the story of this summer.**

 **-Jin**

5012 AS.

Far away, somewhere that no dragon would ever find, a mountain rose up over a foreign ocean. The waves beat against the cliffs as the aurora played overhead, clouds scattered across the sky. A lone being stood at the top, protected from the winds by a thin sheet of glass.

A comet spun by overhead, and it brought with it a great shaking of the earth. It brought with it a changing of the tides. The comet shone down like a fourth moon upon a world that new only three. The cursed boy's eyes shone like smooth onyx against his pale face as the floor of the observatory shook beneath his feet. More than one thing was awakening.


End file.
